Our Sustainability Journey | Milla + Saber
From the outset, Milla + Saber's founder, Lauren, was determined to create a corner of the internet where mothers, friends, and family could purchase from a local small business and feel confident in the fact that the business is being run with an emphasis on sustainability.
These are the major considerations which took place when deciding on product designs and business stock and supply purchases:
Clothing Materials
All materials must be at least 95% Organic Cotton. Not only because it's a pure, natural fibre, but it is also sustainable and supports our message that Organic Cotton is the best choice for newborn and toddler skin, heck - anybody's skin! Lauren's son was born with severe eczema (see Our Story) and after much trial and error, Organic Cotton was a clear winner in reducing his irritability and itching. It allowed him to breathe and not worry about rough materials snagging on his already inflamed skin.
Neck and Waist Labels
Saber would always scratch the back of his neck or his lower back where labels would sit against his skin, rub and irritate him as they had a crispy, synthetic and sharp feel. They'd immediately be cut off. So when it came to the neck labels for Milla + Saber, it was imperative the label would be soft cotton, and the clothing completed with a soft cotton neck tape (tape that goes across the back of your clothing to flatten the seams of the neck hem so they don't irritate). Even the placement of the neck label made a difference. Horizontal and flat fared much better over time compared to "tongue" labels that hung vertically and would get scrunched up in the wash and then sit roughly against the skin unless ironed - who has time for ironing with toddlers?!
Hang Tags
Those swinging pieces of information tell you a lot about a brand. Do they use plastic clips or plastic rings around the puncture where the string goes? Is there a second tag made of some plasticky see through "modern and cool" design that you aren't sure if it's recyclable or rubbish? Are they using metal pins to clip on to kids clothes (I find these brands so tone deaf!)? Is the material it is printed on fashionable or sustainable (you can have both but some choose not to)? Our hang tags are 100% recyclable paper and printed with eco-friendly inks and tied with 100% cotton string.
Garment Bags
It gives a bad taste in the mouth to say we messed this one up at the start! BUT this is where we have made significant improvement and learned a lesson! Our manufacturer sends the clothing in soft plastic recyclable (yay!) garment bags for protection after final quality checks. This is standard across the clothing industry.
When the stock arrived, we noticed the bag had to be ripped to get it open, it wasn't re-sealable and, being a "what's the worst that could happen?" scenario runner, Lauren decided that it could pose a problem if we couldn't check the quality of the garment (i.e no rips, loose threads, colour errors etc) again prior to sending to customers, or if customers happened to want to exchange or return the item. So we set about ordering custom (but still soft plastic recyclable) re-sealable garment bags. This was great, especially for when we attended markets or did bulk checking of product quality before updating stock on the website.
We also made the conscious decision to choose recyclable plastic over biodegradable as we considered it to be easier to recycle and maintain the eco-ness compared with biodegradable which shouldn't actually go into your kerb-side rubbish and needs a particular way of composting to be successful otherwise it cannot break down., not even in your own backyard! We will have an article about this shortly. Back to the Garment Bags-
Despite it being recyclable it still felt icky. We had created more plastic, on purpose, for a business that is supposed to be eco-friendly. It felt wrong. We also had tissue paper for wrapping and it was very strange juxtaposition wrapping plastic garment bags in tissue paper. Also not aesthetically pleasing.
So we are continuing to use the garment bags we purchased for storing our products and keeping them safe, and re-using them for new products as they come in and are quality checked, but we will not be sending any products out in garment bags. If you see us at any markets in Auckland, you will experience the garment bag for safe keeping. It is entirely soft plastic recyclable at your local supermarket and you can find out more about this at the bottom of our FAQs under Garment and Shipping Packaging.
TL;DR: we aren't purchasing any more additional garment bags.
Mailing Bags
Following in the footsteps of the above, and quoting from our FAQ section:
'We made the conscious decision to choose PE bags over biodegradable as we felt the likelihood of biodegradable bags making their way into a garden was lower than a PE bag being returned to a supermarket's soft plastic recycling bin during your regular grocery shop. We considered whether people are likely to dig in their garden, and people without gardens who may not be able to arrange the biodegradation of the product. In these instances the biodegradable material is likely to end up in landfill and does not break down at all, or as effectively as if it was placed into soil or compost. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires landfills to block out air, moisture and sunlight which are the crucial elements for proper biodegradation.'
All of our recyclable mailer bags are purchased locally from r3pack who are doing wonderful things in the industry.
Mailer Labels
In the interest of keeping costs low, we purchased A5 printer labels from our shipping supplier and are using a home printer. In the future, when we run out of this batch of labels, we hope to purchase a thermal printer which is eco-friendly as it doesn't use ink to create the shipping labels.
Stickers and Washi Tape
We loveeeeed using noissue as our packaging partner for our stickers and tape! Here's why we loved their stickers:
'These stickers that are made from FSC-certified, acid-free, lignin and sulfur-free pulp, so that they compost without leaving any residue behind. The release liner is curb-side recyclable after fulfilling its purpose.'
And their washi tape?! Amazing!
Our Washi Tape is made from rice paper and is both home and commercially compostable after use, breaking down fully within 180 and 90 days, respectively. Alternatively, it can also be curb-side recycled after use.
Packaging Logos
We decided to move away from stickers and adhesive labels (see more below) and instead purchased custom rubber stamps from the talented Auckland local printmaker @sandrawaineprintmaker (check her amazing art out here). We now stamp our packaging boxes and thank you cards ourselves - a process we LOVE!
Dibble Dabble
We've dibble dabbled into Cricut after borrowing a friends' machine to create some labels and decided it's not for us! Time and effort of course factors in with toddlers and the rest of life - but vinyl labels = not eco-friendly. To avoid wastage, we're going to finish using what we've made and then return back to our trusty noissue eco-friendly labels.
Marketing
Like any consumer, we are passionate about true and authentic reviews on products. We don't believe in gifting an "influencer" to promote a product when they don't align with the values of our business (Organic, Sustainable, Ethical) and the review tends to be gushing. Whilst this means slower growth, we are staying true to our values. Of course we stand by our products and their quality but it is very hard to find an influencer who comes out and says "I used the product and actually, it isn't that great".
Our favourite influencer is actually from Australia. She isn't afraid to tell you how it is - Cindy Mead @cindymead_. She may not oust the brand, but she is happy to say "I told you we'd be trying this product. We tried it, it was terrible, I'm not going to plug it to you" and she does it in such a respectful way. If this type of "influencing" sounds like you, and you're a mum to littlies with a focus on sustainability and clean white pictures with pops of personality, we'd love to hear from you and collab! Drop us an email with a little bit about yourself and your insta handle: hello@milla-saber.co.nz
We hope you enjoyed reading our sustainability journey. It certainly isn't over and we look forward to updating this as time goes on.
Lauren xx
Milla + Saber